This is a question that the producers and artists of the Von Krahl Theatre in Estonia have asked.
They lived through the meltdown of the Russian empire. That is how Estonia achieved independence in August 1991. So they are keenly aware of the fragility of empires and able to anticipate the challenges that the American Empire now faces.
Their hope? To inspire a conversation from which a new, richer story for mankind can emerge.
As the financial crisis unfolds, the question “Is There Life After Capitalism?” is one that many people are asking.
Von Krahl has invited entrepreneuers, community planners, philosophers and media leaders from around the world to help them engage the Estonian people and — through Estonian TV and the Internet — an international audience.
To view some of the presentations to-date, including Ron Hopkins on Transition Towns , see http://vimeo.com/vonkrahl.
Tonight I had dinner with Von Krahl founder Peeter Jalakas, producer Elo-Liis Parmas, consultant Henri Laupmaa, and Paul Jay, founder of The Real News who will also be speaking tomorrow. The conversation ranged from community currencies to the nature of living in Canada and Estonia, as both are bordered by a large, unpredictable neighbor.
Dinner was at The Garden, one of the Von Krahl restaurants. The Garden proved that these artists/entreprenerus are as extraordinary at producing culinary creations as leading world-changing conversations.
Is there life after capitalism? What do you think?
Nice ! :).. Thanks buddy..
Hi there, not sure that this is true, but thanks
If one’s life is one’s money, then many will find no life after capitalism.
If one understands what is real, shifts are happening and humans are being manipulated.
Everyone says Social Security won’t be there for them. It’s because since JFK the will has been lost in this country. With criminals in charge, the path is different. JFK scuttled and covered over was the beginning of many signals to corruption that the people permit cover ups.
Everyone says Social Security won’t be there for them. It’s because they are parroting the marketing line of the investment pros who want them to send them their money. An alternate system which Catherine wisely points out tethers a family’s sense of well-being and future security to the mob is not a good substitute for Social Security.
Seal the borders. Reduce government and its share of our productive economic donations. Let’s help the farmers and small business owners, not with subsidies, but with laws that don’t continue to favor everyone but U.S. Bring our troops home. Turn off the TVs of the world and the tickers. Yes, there is life after capitalism (another intellectual construct).
Jack:
Good point. No wonder Canadians seem so grounded. 🙂
Catherine
Catherine, actually Canada has TWO unpredictable neighbors:
The USA >AND< RUSSIA!
If s person abondons culture and values in the life ends badly;
the sam case is a society but at a larger proportion; you as a society gave up anything which
could make you civilized and life meaningful
Toronto/Sarajevo
We don’t need money and we have never needed money. We are Life, one and equal with all of existence. There are enough resources for everyone. We have given money a value outside of us separate from us, we have chased and desired worthless pieces of paper and have made it our god, determining every aspect of our entire existence here and enslaving ourselves to money, and we have allowed the nature of us to become worthlessness, self-dishonesty, and self-interest.
We must first change the self-interested and self-dishonest nature of ourselves first (where we are only concerned with our own desires and ignoring and destroying life), through self-forgiveness and self-honesty, and live that change, through self-corrective application. The nature of many people now is self-interest, in which they only care about their own desires and ignore everyone else. People must change, to change our reality. External reality is a hologram, mirroring internal reality, one and equal.
I’ve already come across The Venus Project website. Even if we create a Resource-Based Economy, if we don’t change the self-interested nature of ourselves, nothing will change. As we change ourselves, we can bring forth a Resource-Based Economy or something similar where all life is one and equal in lived application, sharing and caring and concern for life would be our nature, and everyone considering all of life instead of their own desires would be how communities would work.
Check out the following sites:
http://desteni.co.za/
http://www.youtube.com/user/DesteniProductions
http://desteni.multiply.com/journal
Here are direct links to the site http://www.thevenusproject.com/resource_eco.htm which advocates a global sharing society or resourced based economy and here is its sister site, http://thezeitgeistmovement.com If we spread these sites to as many people as possible, the world will know that there is an alternative to this mess were in. Also watch the free movies Zeitgeist and its sequel Zeitgeist Addendum which goes into detail on how a resource based world economy would work. The website is http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
We definitely need to try a system of sharing the worlds resources and finally do away with the monetary system (money). There is a social engineer named Jacque Fresco who has been working on the blueprint of a Resource Based Economy, which will enable humanity on a global scale to create a new society which shares all the worlds resources with one another putting an end to poverty, starvation, greed, crime, exploitation and everything else negative that comes with a monetary system. The website is The Venus Project. Also check out The Zeitgeist movement, which is a way to get the awareness of this system out on a global scale. We must remake this world for the betterment of the global human family, not just a select few.
I really like what you wrote Riza and it brings some focus, for me anyway. Can we create a sharing society at all? A sharing society already exist for many people and many segments of humainity. For me a deeper question is HOW can we create a sharing society. Capitalism, if I am not mistaken, didn’t start as way for the wealthy to get wealthier. I am not an expert at all. Surely capitalism as it now functions can not and should not exist any longer. I guess another questions would be Can we re-invent Capitalism in a way that can providing equitable sharing? And–not trying to be funny-but how in the world can those who don’t want to share be forced share?
The Manifesto (published in “Il Popolo d’Italia” on June 6, 1919) is divided into four sections, describing Fascist objectives in political, social, military and financial fields.[1]
Politically, the Manifesto calls for:
Universal suffrage polled on a regional basis, with proportional representation and voting and electoral office eligibility for women;
Proportional representation on a regional basis;
Voting for women (which was opposed by most other European nations);
Representation at government level of newly created National Councils by economic sector;
The abolition of the Italian Senate (at the time, the Senate, as the upper house of parliament, was by process elected by the wealthier citizens, but were in reality direct appointments by the King. It has been described as a sort of extended council of the Crown);
The formation of a National Council of experts for labor, for industry, for transportation, for the public health, for communications, etc. Selections to be made of professionals or of tradesmen with legislative powers, and elected directly to a General Commission with ministerial powers (this concept was rooted in corporatist ideology and derived in part from Catholic social doctrine).
In labour and social policy, the Manifesto calls for:
The quick enactment of a law of the State that sanctions an eight-hour workday for all workers;
A minimum wage;
The participation of workers’ representatives in the functions of industry commissions;
To show the same confidence in the labor unions (that prove to be technically and morally worthy) as is given to industry executives or public servants;
Reorganisation of the railways and the transport sector;
Revision of the draft law on invalidity insurance;
Reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55.
In military affairs, the Manifesto advocates:
Creation of a short-service national militia with specifically defensive responsibilities;
Armaments factories are to be nationalised;
A peaceful but competitive foreign policy.
In finance, the Manifesto advocates:
A strong progressive tax on capital (envisaging a “partial expropriation” of concentrated wealth);
The seizure of all the possessions of the religious congregations and the abolition of all the bishoprics, which constitute an enormous liability on the Nation and on the privileges of the poor;
Revision of all contracts for military provisions;
The revision of all military contracts and the seizure of 85 percent of the profits therein.
Querfront today means a close connection or similar approaches of left and right wing radicals. Anti-Americanism and Antizionism allowed attempts of right wing individuals to find common ground with parts of the Peace Movement and Antiglobalization Movements. Eastern Germany and especially Thuringia has a significant higher amount of Querfront activities and supporters.[1]
Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism (including collectivism and populism based on nationalist values); Third Position (including class collaboration, corporatism, economic planning, mixed economy, national socialism, national syndicalism, protectionism,); totalitarianism (including dictatorship, indoctrination, major social interventionism, and statism); and militarism.[13][14]
Capitalism
First we must define capitalism…and agree upon the definition. From Websters New World Dictionary…capitalism is defined as:
Economic system whereby all or most production and distribution (including land) are privately owned and operated for profit, under competitive conditions, and tendency toward concentration of wealth for the few…in later times…as in now – growth of great corporations, with increased governmental control.
Under this definition, and if we look at history, we see that capitalism has created a system wherein a few hold the wealth and these few control our world.
Under capitalism there exists polarities – Capitalists (the wealthy) and Labor (workers), the rich (few) and poor (many). The Labour Unions came about to mitigate against this great divide. But…eventually even the Labor Unions, emerging to neutralize capitalism, became themselves capitalists!
Between the two polarities, rich and poor, capital and labor, there is a third system and that is the “sharing society.”
Those who are concerned for humanity do not stand on either side of capitalism or labor. They place themselves and are located at the center – standing for humanity and its needs.
The world needs a new system (beyond capitalism, a next developmental stage) – that of equitable sharing. Which directs us toward two deeper more relevant questions – can we create a sharing society, how, and can capitalism exist within a sharing society?
What I like about this is that it is happening at all. An openness and a presentation of different views and dialogue mostly good I feel. To be able hear and consider the views of others is very healthy for me.
Right before the election I had the opportunity to be involved in a blog where most of the people “meditate” and the folks who own the blog put out an email expressing their views and asking folks to look to their “own hearts”. In other words, they shared their “hearts” and didn’t preach to others but asked them to do likewise. They also opened their blog for people to voice their hearts and their views. Probably 80% of the people had a positive response to their doing this, but about 20% (my guess only) literally verbally attacked them and asked to be removed from his list and much more.
I found it fascinating, because as I read everyone’s comments, I realized that I could have said most of what everyone of them said at some point. And in effect, I found that at the end, I changed my mind about who to vote for. Not because I believed that the canditate I voted was not as I thought in terms of the information I had, but because I was able to see a bigger picture and respond from what I was seeing where I heard him speak, what came through from his heart.
The whole thing was an exercise for me to see a bigger picture, to be aware that any of us can not see the whole picture. Anyone who is familiar with Epistemology we are never seeing everything that is there. We make our decisions, make up our minds from limited information ALWAYS. There is no absolute truth.
Depending on our worldviews, our religion, what we have spent most of our time “learning”, our professions, where we live, our family culture…so many things…we will have prejudices. May be we would do better off by looking for what we have in common as opposed to what is “wrong” with others ways of being.
In that blogging I mention, I had felt anger, I felt agreement, I felt love, and then I remembered my dear friend who is now passed. Back in 2004 I was quite a lefty environmentalist as he called me, but one day when we were having quite a yelling match because he insisted we needed to attack Iraq saying “Are we suppose to let them come to kill here?” and I yelled back they have never come here! Anyway, there was a moment when he looked like he might have a heart attack, I stopped in my tracks and all I could say from my heart was “oh my god” repeatedly, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to hurt him. And I remember that I really cared about him. I brought him some herbal tea and that ended that for that day anyway. He and I were to have many such matches until something happened for both of us, the love we had for each other gave us a deeply spiritual bond, and as one friend said to me, “there is a deeper truth”.
The same way we are partially brained washed by TV & newspaper media, we are partially brain washed by any thing we immerse ourselves in. This is one reason that having an open mind and heart is so important. And I find Catherine’s blog a place to for such conversation.
Hi Catherine!
Quite a “dramatic” question 🙂
To put it short: capitalism is a system. It is made out of people. Defined by values. When values change, people change and the system changes. That can be played both ways – towards the good or the bad. Awereness is the key. The mainstream media is playing an important role in this. We all should be much more critical about them and what we watch and what suggested values we are taking in our minds and hearts. These influence on what/how we think and act. And that is what eventually makes “a system” good or bad.
Maybe shuting down the TV is the best thing to do. Makes much more sense to go out, talk to friends, family, meet new people, going to a concert, visit a gallery, a workshop, read books, search for positive news channels on internet, think positive … and “the system” will change.
Kind regards,
Mathew
Wonderfully positive.
Of course the ‘solutions’ from problems would come more from those caught between major ‘isms’. Interesting that the giant spy case, the one that ‘greatly hurt’ NATO, just emerged from Estonia. Being said that nothing of this magnitude in the spy world has surfaced since the “Year Of The Spy”. That was 1984 nearly ¼ century ago!
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12566943&mode=comment&intent=readBottom
Easy to infer info passed to Russia from NATO was economic, not military.
Simplified- the world camps are divided between ‘protectionism’ and ‘free trade’. These are not ‘isms’ in traditional sense but between total control and a trend toward smaller and smaller self-sustaining economies. Though it might seem confusing at first, the greater overall problems of environment and population common to all will be solved much easier between many small groups that are not threatened from the outside than by any controlling empire.
The thrust of ‘protectionism’ is coming mainly from the south, Africa and South America. It is confusing as war becomes more and more asymmetrical. Notice the similarity with China in the late forties, it comes from the inside first, coastal areas are last. But here different because force is ‘headless’, no central command. Tip O’Neal’s dictum takes time. And often guns.
Michael
Wow, there are hours of the presentations available. And I have started listening. I think this time well spent for anyone, and I am going to spend most of my day listening. It is very mind expanding to hear this. Wish Obama would listen!
I think there is life after Capitalism, because life was never dependent on Capitalism 🙂 I find all of this very exciting, without even listening to any of the presentations. It is events and happenings such as these that make our time more exciting and filled with opportunity for major changes in our world. Thank you Catherine, as always, for being who you are and sharing all that you do.